


I'm a Pro at Imperfections (Punks and Pastels au)

by uppercasebread (orphan_account)



Category: Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Panic! at the Disco, Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Multi, but i havent planned any of the writing, ill warn u, ok so theres gonna be some trigger warnings later on and theres a bit of violence early on, punks vs pastels, stay safe babes, wow this is a rly planned au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-29
Updated: 2016-06-02
Packaged: 2018-05-16 22:50:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 12,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5844058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/uppercasebread
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Most highschools have their cliques, you have the jocks, the nerds, the preps. But in Columbus High, the cliques go a bit further. You're a Punk or Pastel, We or Them, and you can't change your mind once you've chosen your side. At least, that was until Tyler and Josh came into the picture.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Introduction- Welcome to highschool.

Sure, every highschool has their cliques, whether that be the jocks, the nerds, the preps. They stay away from each other, but ultimately, they change. However, at Columbus High, the cliques go a bit further than that. There are two enemy groups, the Punks, and then the Pastels. The Punks wear dark clothing, mostly made of leather. Their hair is brighter than the rainbow, and their music is only the loudest. The Pastels wear light clothing in light pinks, baby blues, and mint greens. Their hair is bright but gentle colors, their music soft and soothing. When you enter the doors for the first time, you're called a Neutral. Neutrals get their first year to decide which side, then they don't get to change it. They become entangled in a feud that's been going on for decades, and can only be freed when they graduate. The sides have never changed, let alone combined, until Tyler and Josh arrived.

~~~

"Brendon, Hurry up! Patrick and Pete are already leaving and they're gonna leave without us if you don't get out here!"  
Tyler yelled to the taller boy, who only rolled his eyes before exiting his tiny room, closing the door softly behind him, the old wood creaking.  
"Yeah, yeah, i know, i know, i'm coming."  
Brendon mumbled back, swinging his bookbag over his shoulder and following his shorter friend out of the door. They met with an excited-looking Patrick and a proud-looking Pete, whose eyes glimmered in the early morning sun.  
"Look Patrick, our two baby sons, all grown up. Wonder what side they'll pick, huh?"  
Pete nudged Patrick with his elbow, and the short Punk only grinned and rolled his eyes, turning to walk towards the school.  
Tyler laughed slightly and followed behind the two, Pete bounding down the sidewalk while Patrick had to lengthen his strides to keep up.

Upon making it into the building, Tyler sighed, looking up at the high ceilings and large commons room. Pete and Patrick whispered goodbyes to each other sadly as Pete separated to the Pastels' side, and Patrick kept walking to the Punks'. They were the only two from either side who could even tolerate each other, let alone get along. They couldn't be seen near each other, and had to separate every morning.

"So, you guys should probably stick with me, i would say you could see the Pastels' side, but with your jacket and piercings," He looked to Tyler. "And your piercings and vest," He shifted his gaze to Brendon. "They'll assume you're picking our side anyway."

Patrick continued down the hallway, Footsteps echoing off the walls. They were actually early, most likely because Patrick was the leader of the Punks.

 

"Well Brendon," Tyler turned to his friend. 

"I guess this is our new family."


	2. Waste (I Just Really Wanna Be With You)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> finally getting into more of the story, this chapter will b longer and hopefully better than the last one :DD

Josh woke up to the sound of his alarm clock blaring and groaned, rolling over and slamming the snooze button. He climbed out of bed slowly, body still not 100% used to the new sleeping schedule he would have to follow for highschool. He got dressed sluggishly and stared in the mirror, running a hand through his mint green hair. He put in his favorite pink and blue plugs, completely avoiding his very first ones, not wanting to touch them. He sighed and left the bathroom, making his way downstairs. 

Once he reached the bottom of the stairs, he could smell coffee and it drew him into the kitchen, where Gerard and Mikey sat at the table, Mikey looking practically dead holding his cup of coffee.

"Mornin' Josh." Gerard said, tired eyes finally glancing up from his phone and meeting Josh's.

Josh only made a soft sound in response, too tired to really say anything else. He went and started to gather up all of his stuff, causing Gerard to shoot him a look, raising his eyebrows.

"No breakfast today?" He asked quietly, and though he sounded understanding, Josh knew he just wanted the younger boy to eat.

"Nah, not today. I'll eat later. I promise." He said, meeting Gerard's gaze as he finished packing all of his things into his bookbag. 

Gerard sighed and stood from the table, going to put his mug in the sink, and grabbing his keys. He looked to Mikey, who had fallen asleep sitting up.

"Mikes, wake up, c'mon. We gotta go to school." He said, shaking his younger brother awake and heading towards the door.

Mikey groaned and stood, setting his mug in the sink next to Gerard's following the older boy out of the door, Josh leading behind them, shutting off the lights in the kitchen and closing the door softly behind them. He stepped down from the apartment's porch and followed the Way brothers to their car, climbing in the back with Mikey. He staredout of the window as they drove off, starting towards the highschool.

~

Once he stepped in the school doors, a wave of anxiety swept through Josh's stomach. He had one day to decide which side he would be on, even though he was already basically a Pastel anyway, and he didn't know how the other students would react to.. him. In general, Josh was nervous about meeting anyone, though he managed to push it away as Gerard gently put one of his hands on Josh's shoulder.

"Our classes are this way." The older boy said, starting to walk to the left, where the Pastels were. Josh swallowed his nerves and followed behind, steeling himself for anything the kids might say. 

Upon entering the hallway, however, all of his nerves melted away. Almost every kid was wearing some gentle, soft color. One boy might be wearing a soft pink sweater, while the person next to him wearing a baby blue hoodie. They were all like him, wearing skirts and heels and soft pinks and mint greens no matter what gender they were or where they came from. His heart felt like it was bursting with happiness, and his face split into a grin. Gerard looked back and smiled at him. If anyone knew about Josh and his fears, it was Gerard. Mikey walked in, eyes wide. He seemed just as ecstatic as Josh was.

"So kids, how would you like to be the leader of these guys?"  
Gerard asked, still grinning as he started towards the end of the hallway. 

Josh and Mikey looked at him in shock, exchanging a glance between each other.

"Really? but why? aren't you the leader now?" Mikey asked, following at the back of the group, adjusting his glasses nervously as other Pastels looked at him.

"Well yeah, but i'm gonna graduate soon. We've gotta get a new leader, and the rule is that the younger siblings are the next ones up for the 'throne'" He said, using air quotes around the word throne.

"You guys are both my brothers, even if Josh is really only my adoptive brother. You're the next ones up to be leader. You guys will go through the coronation, then the rest of the Pastels will get a week to pick the leader, understand?" He asked, and Mikey and Josh both nodded.

They came up to a small group of people at the back of the room, and Gerard started to introduce them around the circle.

Josh sighed. This first week would be a long one.

~~~~~~~~

Brendon laughed.

"Dude that was the most cliche, young-adult-novel-turned-movie line i've ever heard."

He snickered as they followed behind Patrick, Tyler blushing slightly.

"Dude whatever, I was trying to be cool."

That only made Brendon laugh harder, causing the shorter boy to giggle. 

"Alright kids, here we are, the Punk hallway."  
Patrick said, fanning his arms out in a dramatic way.

"One of you guys will be the leader of this hallway soon, and everyone in it."  
He said, causing a grin to split across Brendon's face, while Tyler's anxiety just doubled in his stomach.

"W-Why would we be the leader of the Punks?"  
Tyler asked quietly, feeling a little sick.

"Well, the thing is, theres a rule we have here where the younger siblings of the leader are up next to be the leader. Basically you have a coronation ceremony thing, and then because theres two of you, the rest of us get a week to choose our leader. The coronation's today, next monday one of you will be in my place."  
He said, turning back around and starting off towards the end of the hallway, his two 'adopted' brothers following behind.

Tyler sighed. He knew this week would be long.

But first, they had to go to the orientation for all of the Neutrals.   
~~

The orientation had been fun, mostly the Punks just gave the basic speech about the rules of the "war" with the Pastels, then they all hung out, listening to music and talking with each other until the next class bell rang.

Tyler sat bored through his biology class, watching the clock until it ended. The next period was a study hall, and it was the coronation for him and Brendon.

Once the bell rang, he sighed and jogged off to the commons, dragging his bag behind him. He was one of the first ones there, the only other people were Brendon and some Punk he was talking to. Tyler stood quietly and awkwardly at one of the other tables until Patrick appeared.

once the room filled up with Punks, Patrick stood at the front of it and got everyone's attention.

"Alright everybody, we're gonna start the coronation. I need Tyler and Brendon to come up here, come on guys."  
He said, doing a little dance as he waited for them to stand next to him.

"Alright, somebody bring me our black paint."  
He said, and Tyler looked terrified.

"Calm down Tyler, it's just for your eyes."  
He said, before turning and giving him a concerned look. Patrick knew about the hallucination, he knew that Tyler sometimes woke up with dark purple, almost black bruises on his neck.

Tyler nodded, and Patrick dipped his fingers in the black paint, smudging it underneath his eyes, before turning to Brendon and doing the same.

Then two Punks brought forward blue paint and red paint. Patrick put a red stripe across Tyler's right eye, and a blue one over Brendon's left.

 

Tyler's stomach churned.  
He knew this would be a hard week.


	3. I Would Do Anything For You (Ooh la la, i've fallen in love)

Josh sighed as he walked down the hallways, watching everybody closely. He noticed the way they treated him after the coronation, like he were some authority figure. He kind of thought it was funny, he had some three-day-old baby blue paint on his face and everybody acted like he was the president. He laughed a little at the thought and continued down the hallway, finding Gerard, the older boy leaning against some lockers. He was staring at his phone, and didn't notice Josh was there until he cleared his throat, making Gerard jump.

"Oh! hey kid. Wednesday already, huh? how's it been so far?" He asked, brushing some of his blue-and-black hair behind his ear, revealing a bit of the pink and orange underneath.

"It's been alright, it's kinda weird how people are treating me like i'm already the leader or something. Has Mikey said anything about it?" Josh rubbed at a bit of the paint that was making his neck itch.

"He's said pretty much the same thing," Gerard shrugged. "You'll be used to it by Friday. They'll pick one of you then."

Just then, the bell rang, and all of the Pastels in the hallway separated to their respective classes. One of them walked up to him, Josh thought his name was Pete. He wore a soft pink sweater and his hair was a brighter shade of the same color. His pants were a soft green and he wore white converse. He flashed a wide grin and started talking.

"Hey, I'm Pete! you're one of the new Pastel leaders right? " He asked, bounding along next to Josh, easily keeping up with his stride.

"Um, yeah, i guess? nobody's voted yet though, i guess you would know that." He trailed off awkwardly, anxiety starting to bubble in his belly.

"Well, yeah i know, but i think people are leaning towards you. Not that the other kid isn't a good leader or anything, i think they just like you better." He shrugged, and Josh nodded slowly.

"Um, not to be rude, but why did you want to know?" Josh asked, entering his chemistry class, which he apparently shared with the Pete kid.

"Oh! well, i just wanted to see what you thought about being a leader or whatever." He said, shrugging and sitting in the empty chair next to Josh.

"i guess it's cool? i don't really know how to feel about it. I think it's nice that i get the chance to be a leader but i'm technically not even Gerard's brother so i feel like it's kinda unfair to Mikey." He replied, and Pete nodded slightly.

"But you know Gerard thinks you're as much of his brother as Mikey is, right? He wouldn't have let us only coronate Mikey." Pete said quietly, and then the secondary bell rang, and Pete walked off to sit with some Punk across the room. Josh processed his words.

He mulled over the thought the entire class, barely able to pay attention to what the teacher was saying. 

Once the next bell rang, Josh shook his head to clear it and walked out, and off to his next class. 

~

At lunch, Josh sat on the very edge of the Pastels' side, with Gerard, Mikey, the same Pete kid from earlier, and a couple of other people he didn't know. They laughed and talked for a while, and Josh joined in every now and then, until someone on the other side of the room caught his eye.

It was a thin, lanky boy with slight gaunt, hollow eyes. His fluffy hair had thick, chunky stripes of red in it, and Josh admired how well it was done. He had a slightly big leather jacket on, over top of a white undershirt. He had quite a few piercings, like an eyebrow bar, septum ring, snakebites and a lip ring. He thought he could also see a couple ear piercings. He scoffed internally and made a comment in his head about overpiercing.

Josh also noticed that the kid had thick black stripes across his cheeks and a red stripe across his eye. That meant he was the next one up for the leader of the Punks. Josh watched him carefully, at first expecting him to be snarky and kind of a jerk, but then realizing soon that he seemed sad. Not necessarily on top, but there was a kind of deep or internal sadness he seemed to possess. His movements seemed gentle, and he seemed to speak softly, as one of the Punks from the table would listen to him and then relay it to the rest of them.

The Punk the boy was talking to seemed to have the same kind of makeup, except he had a blue stripe. He was taller, and more excitable. He seemed to yell mostly, and his spoke animatedly, using both of his hands to assist in his storytelling. Josh watched them intently until lunch was over, heading back to his hallway to go to class.

The boy from lunch stuck in his mind all day.

~~~~~~~

Tyler sighed, staring off into the distance. He'd given up trying to talk to the table and having Brendon have to tell everyone what he'd said. As he was staring, he felt eyes on his back, and looked up, catching a boy across the room looking at Brendon. The boy had soft, mint green hair, and the baby blue stripes that meant he would be the next one up to the leader of the Pastels. He seemed quiet, not really conversing with the rest of his table, just carefully watching Brendon as he relayed his story about the one time that Tyler broke his nose because he fell down the stairs and how it made Brendon laugh so hard he fell too.

He liked the boy already, and was drawn to the way he observed. He didn't do it necessarily judgementally, just in a curious way, like he really just wanted to know what you were like. 

Lunch ended and Tyler sighed and stood, walking off to his last couple classes of the day, the boy from lunch still in his head.

~

Once they got home, Tyler ran to his room and flopped on the bed, groaning as his back cracked.

He heard snickering from the doorway and looked up to see Patrick, who looked just as tired as Tyler felt.

"Long day?" He asked, and Tyler nodded.

Patrick laughed again and started to walk off, before stopping and leaning back into his room.

"Make sure your light is on before you go to bed. I don't want- just- stay safe okay?" He said, giving Tyler a concerned look.

"I'll remember. Can't say it'll stay on though." He replied quietly, curling back up in his bed, knowing he should turn on his light but not wanting to get up. 

The moment Patrick left, however, he felt eyes on his back and heard a clicking sound as His legs climbed across the walls. Tyler shuddered and reached to turn on the lamp, but something thick and black started leaking from the ceiling onto him. It burned and he hissed, curling his arm back into himself. 

he still felt eyes on him and didn't want to move, knowing that if he turned, he'd only see red eyes.

the clicking sound grew louder, and Tyler curled up again, feeling more of whatever the black substance had been before dripping across his stomach and back, sizzling and burning. he curled up tighter, covering his eyes and trying to cover his body with his sheets.

he felt sharp claws on his arms, but they weren't actually digging in, just resting on top of his skin. More of the black substance. A soft growling, and the claws moved closer to his neck. Tyler winced, but then the light came on and all of the feelings were gone. Tyler cracked open one of his eyes to see Patrick standing in the doorway, eyes sad. Tyler opened his eyes fully and sat up, reflecting the look back to Patrick.

Patrick sighed and Tyler's stomach churned, not able to avoid the feeling that Patrick was disappointed in him. He looked to the old wooden floorboards and curled his knees into his chest.

"Tyler, i'm not mad at you. I'm worried. It seems like it's getting harder for you to remember to turn the lights on and i just don't want anything to happen to you. i don't know what to even do about it."

Tyler looked up and Patrick sighed again, moving forward and wrapping his arms around Tyler. 

"Go to bed, i'll make sure to wake you up in the morning, ok?" Patrick asked, ruffling Tyler's hair with the one hand he had.

Tyler nodded and climbed back into bed, curling up and falling asleep quickly.

~~~

Friday. It had been a long week. Finally, the Punks would choose their leader. Tyler and Brendon stood in front of their whole side, as they waited for Patrick and another short Punk named Frank to count the votes.

"Alright everybody, we've counted the votes, and your new leader is..." He paused dramatically, a grin on his face.

The Punks watching started a drumroll on their legs, looking legitimately excited.

"Tyler!" Patrick yelled, and Brendon whistled loudly as the shorter boy grinned, waving shyly and whispering 'thank you's, even though he knew nobody could hear him.

~~~

Gerard grinned.

"Alright everybody, i've gathered the votes and your new leader is.." The older boy paused dramatically, a wide grin splitting his face in half.

The Pastels watched in silent excitement, waiting for their now-former leader to announce the new one.

"Josh!" Gerard yelled, and the room exploded. Everybody cheered, and Josh felt a blush creep onto his face as he thanked them. He looked over at Mikey, who was cheering with the rest, though Josh thought he saw a flash of jealousy. It was gone in a moment though, and Josh didn't think of it.

He grinned.  
This school would be fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok all the chapter titles so far are foster the people songs u guys should listen to tbh


	4. baby update!!!

sorry for this not being an actual chapter, i couldnt get around to updating yesterday :(

i just wanted 2 thank you guys for all the support and feedback!! it makes me rly happy to see that youŕe liking this fic and ill update as soon as i can

ok thank u!!


	5. Houdini

Tyler stared up at the ceiling, lying in bed. His light was on, and he stared at the wooden boards on the ceiling, tracing the same patterns with his eyes that he did every night, trying to fall asleep. He didn't know what time it was, nor how long he'd been lying there.

 

He rolled over, finally feeling tired. He fell asleep moments later.

 

*****

_tyler runs up to patrick, clinging to the older boy's side. Tyler is eleven, Patrick fourteen. The younger boy grabs Patrick's arm and swings it slightly, trying to get the older boy's attention._

_"Hey Ty, what's up?" Patrick asked, picking up the smaller boy and setting him on the table, facing him._

_"I wanna ask why your arm is so stumpy"  Tyler said, gently poking Patrick's arm-stump._

_Patrick's smile faltered for a second, before it returned._

_"Well, i was driving to see my family in a place called Wilmette, in Illinois. But when i was going there, another car hit mine, and my arm got squished in between the door and part of the front of the car," he said, laughing as the younger of the two winced, curling one of his hands up near his face. "Luckily, nobody died and i only lost my hand."  He said, twisting his hand-less stump around, causing Tyler to giggle._

_"Did it hurt?" Tyler asked, moving Patrick's arm around, investigating the scars across the end of his arm._

_"It hurt a lot, at first." He said, and the younger boy gasped, dropping his arm._

_"It doesn't anymore though, you can touch it." Patrick laughed._

_Tyler hummed, and hugged him tightly, liking how it felt to be hugged with one arm._

_*****_

He woke up in the morning, still smiling from the memory. He'd forgotten about when he used to try to do things with one arm behind his back to be like Patrick. He climbed out of bed and went to get ready for school, getting dressed and walking downstairs for breakfast. Brendon and Pete were already there, throwing pieces of cereal at one another, trying to catch it in their mouths.

"Hey kid! mornin'!" Pete yelled as he threw more cereal at Brendon's face.

"Mornin' Pete. Where's 'Trick?" Tyler asked, getting his own cereal.

"He already left, wanted to get there early like he usually does." Brendon replied, as Pete was now busy trying to eat the cereal Brendon had thrown at him.

Tyler nodded, and ate his breakfast quickly, so he wouldn't be late. He basically threw the bowl in the sink- it was plastic it would be fine -and grabbed his stuff from one of the chairs.

"You guys are gonna be late if you don't leave soon!" He yelled through the door as he left and started down the street towards the school.

 

He made it just as the bell rang, wondering Pete and Brendon had even left yet. He ran to his first class and got there just before the teacher started taking attendance, so technically he couldn't be counted late. 

The second bell rang, announcing the start of class. Tyler sighed and pulled out his textbook, counting down the minutes until lunch.

~

Josh stood in front of all the Pastels, explaining the rules of the prank war.

"Basically, don't kill anyone, don't seriously injure anyone, and have fun."

That marked the beginning of the official Punk vs Pastel war.


	6. Don't Stop

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wowoaowjwojwoaw
> 
> this has a lot of blurrybutt in it so be careful bc hes a jerk ok byyyyyyye

Josh walked around the Pastels' side of the commons, wandering while he waited for someone to come up with their first prank to pull on the Punks. He wandered for a bit until Gerard waved him over, looking excited.

 

"Did you guys get an idea?" He asked, and Gerard nodded excitedly, and everyone else around the table nodded with him.

 

"We found out a way to block off our sprinklers and rig theirs with black paint!" Gerard yelled excitedly, showing Josh the plans they had.

 

There were a couple sheets of paper spread across the table, including the schematics for the sprinklers in the building, and how they did it. Josh didn't really understand how they got the schematics or figured out how to get it to work, but they did, and he was impressed.

 

"This is actually really cool, good job guys. Have you started working on it yet?" One of the other Pastels at the table nodded, and told Josh that they'd sent a couple of the others to go plug their side and fill the rest with paint.

 

"It should be ready in about.." Gerard looked at the clock on the wall behind him. "Five minutes. Then i'll go over there with a burning piece of paper and an ubrella." He chirped, and Josh grinned.

 

The first strike was already in action.

~

Once Gerard went over, Josh stood in front of all the Pastels and got their attention.

"Okay everybody, we have our first prank set up, yay!" He said, and was met with a couple whistles and cheers.

"Basically Gerard just went over to their side with a burning piece of paper and an umbrella. We rigged their sprinklers to spray black paint instead of water." He smiled, and the Pastels laughed, except for Pete, who stiffened and stared at Josh with wide, terrified eyes.

"Pete? you okay?" He asked, and Pete just stood up abruptly and grabbed Josh by the shoulders.

"Did you say black paint?" He asked, and Josh nodded, only making Pete look more terrified.

 

Gerard ran back in right then, umbrella dripping black, a smile on his face. It faded when he saw Pete, who ran out into the commons.

 

"What was that about?" Gerard asked, closing his umbrella and leaning it against a nearby wall, but Josh was already gone, following Pete.

 

Josh ran out into the commons and sighed. All of the Punks were standing outside of their hallway, disgruntled and covered in paint. He saw Pete standing with the old leader of the Punks and one of the two newer ones. Pete looked over at him, waving him over.

 

"What's wrong? Is everybody okay?" He asked, getting more and more anxious.

The Punk Pete was sitting next to growled slightly, glaring at Josh.

"No! Tyler's still in there and Brendon's having an allergic reaction to the paint!" He yelled, and Josh curled up slightly.

"Patrick, please, the guy didn't know about.. Him. And there was no way for him to know Brendon was allergic to the paint. I'll go get Tyler. He'll be okay, i promise." Pete said, rubbing Patrick's back slightly.

"Wait, what? Him? Tyler?" Josh asked, everything was confusing and he didn't want to hurt anyone.

"Tyler has a thing with black paint. He's uh, not very stable around it." Patrick said softly as Pete ran down into the Punk hallway.

~~ (about 10 minutes ago) ~~

Tyler stood in front of all the Punks, listening to them trying to figure out what prank to pull on the Pastels, when suddenly one of the Pastels ran into their hallway, an open umbrella resting on his shoulders. He held a burning piece of paper, which he held up towards the ceiling. Tyler was still trying to figure out what he was doing when black paint started to rain down from the ceiling. Immediately, his brain went to work. The fat drops of paint turned into spiders, their long, creepy legs crawling all over the ground and all over Tyler. He started to hyperventilate as the other Punks ran out of the hallway. He vaguely heard Patrick's voice yelling his name, like his head was underwater.

 

He curled up in a ball. He didn't remember sitting down or falling over, but he could feel the cold tile of the hallway floor. He felt all of the spiders crawling over him, their tiny legs clicking in his ears. He couldn't breathe, and he saw a figure in the distance. It looked like him, but its eyes glowed red in the hallway. Each time he blinked, it would get closer. He tried not to blink, but the spiders kept falling over his eyes and making him blink to keep them out.

 

It finally stood over him. It grinned, sharp white teeth visible. It grabbed him by the neck and lifted him up.

 

He knew there would be bruises there soon.


	7. update!!!!

aaaaaaaaaaaa i'm rly sorry i havent updated lately!!

ive been busy and forgetting to actually do so, i promise i will tonight or sometime this weekend. so sorry everybody!

 

i also wanted to say thank you all for your support and feedback! i appreciate it a ton!


	8. Guns and Ships

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yoyooyoyoyoyoyoyoyo
> 
> blurryface chapter hes a jerk in this ok bye
> 
> //tw for hallucinations, bruises/scratching, semi-graphic descriptions of choking/strangling, body horror and horror in generalish oh and blood!!!!!!!! 
> 
> //tw for spiders  
> like a ton of spiders.
> 
> be safe young kids

Tyler squirmed slightly in its grip, but one of its claws was digging into the underneath of his chin. The pressure on his windpipe made it hard to breathe and his vision was swimming slowly, black spots appearing and disappearing with each inhale and exhale. Tyler grabbed at its hands and tried to pry them off, but it was too strong. The spiders were still crawling everywhere, but they were straying away from Blurry, like they were scared of him. Tyler tried again to pull Blurry's hands away from his throat, his chest and lungs were burning and his body was starting to weaken. He dropped his hands and tried using all of his remaining energy to breathe.

Blurry finally dropped him.

Tyler sat on the ground for a moment, regaining all of the air that had been stolen. The hallucination stood above him, red eyes watching in disgust as he breathed in until he started coughing. He stood slowly, avoiding making eye contact with Blurry, hating the red eyes that followed all of his movements. He touched his neck carefully, feeling the soft, dull, pain of bruises starting to form.

Blurry watched, surprisingly to Tyler, in patience until he was finally back to breathing normally, legs no longer shaking. Once he was back to normal, Blurry hissed loudly, sharp, unnaturally long teeth bared. He grabbed Tyler's wrists, digging his claws into the soft skin of the underneath of Tyler's arms. The latter yelped, trying to leap back. The demon continued digging his claws further into Tyler's arms, until beads of blood started to form around them. Blurry let go, then, leaving stinging black paint in the place of his hands; The dark red of Tyler's own blood running down his arms. Tyler hissed and curled his arms into himself, and Blurry grinned, moving forward threateningly slowly.

He was about to do something when they heard footsteps running down the hallway. Blurry hissed softly, and slid behind Tyler as Pete ran in, carrying an orange umbrella. He sighed upon seeing Tyler, still being covered in spiders. Tyler watched the way the spiders bounced off of Pete's umbrella, their legs flailing slightly before they hit the ground and disappeared into puddles. Pete gently took Tyler by the arm and dragged him underneath the umbrella, taking him to the commons. Blurry followed, red eyes glowing in the now black-painted hallway. His footsteps were uncomfortably loud to Tyler, like Blurry was walking loudly on purpose, to make sure Tyler knew he was still there.

Once they reached the commons, Tyler inhaled sharply. Everyone there was staring at him, all of their eyes flashing red. 

" **They think you're an incompetent leader.** " Blurry said from behind him, low, gruff voice startling Tyler.

"I know." He whispered back, causing Pete to look at him, concerned.

Pete closed the umbrella, shaking it off. He tried to clean some of the spiders off, and Tyler watched the way they climbed and stuck to his hands. They seemed to just fall off of Pete, rather than the way they stuck to Tyler, clinging to his clothes and skin.

stared blankly ahead as Pete cleaned him off of spiders, and Patrick ran up, hugging him tightly. 

The shorter man tutted at the bruises on his neck. He sighed at the now half-dried and tacky blood, licking his thumb and gently rubbing some of it off.

" **He's annoyed with you. They're not really here for you.** " He said.

"I know." Tyler whispered.

Patrick continued rubbing the rest of the half dry blood off. He looked at Tyler occasionally, concern obvious in his eyes. Tyler continued to stare blankly. He didn't know how to react, and it felt like every emotion he had was being sucked into the black hole named Blurryface, currently sitting behind him, trying to mess with Pete. He would continually try to grab Pete's head, even though to Pete, he was just empty air, so his hands would pass through Pete's body.

After a moment, they both stepped back from Tyler, and he looked around the room, from face to face, noticing how everyone had gone silent, and they were all glancing around at each other, except for one. There was the boy from the other day, staring Tyler straight in the eyes, looking like he was about to cry. Blurry snickered.

" **He's like you.** " He said, lazily grinning, stepping back slightly.

"I know." Tyler whispered this quieter than the other two, before starting slowly towards the other boy, who still looked like he was about to cry. His eyes were watery and Tyler stood in front of him.

The boy took a huge, shaky breath.

"I-I'm s-so sorry, i, uh, i didn't know about the th-thing with b-black paint and i'm sorry." He said, hiccuping as he actually did start to cry.

Tyler just hugged the boy.

"It's okay." He said softly.

" **He's not sorry.** " Blurry said, but Tyler didn't hear him. He just heard the quiet breathing and soft hiccups of the boy he was hugging.

Blurry seemed to fade away as he held the boy, the demon starting to panic, running forward and trying to rip them apart. Tyler could feel his claws tearing at his shoulders through his jacket.

" **Listen to me.** " He growled, continuing to try to tear Tyler away fro the other boy, who started to pull away, face red and eyes puffy.

" **Listen to me, kid! i'm more important than some kid who cried to you!** " Blurry screamed, digging his claws through the leather to Tyler's shoulder, who stifled a yelp.

The other boy looked startled, and he looked to Tyler's left, where Blurry was standing.

His eyes seemed to linger on the demon. 

Tyler wondered if the boy could see Blurry.

but then he remembered that he had been staring at the boy for too long and shook his head.

"I- i'm gonna go home." He said, before gently dropping his arms and walking off.

He left the building, walking slowly home. He heard soft footsteps following behind him. He turned, hoping to see the boy. Instead, it was Blurry. The demon was enveloped in rage, thick black paint dripping from his hands, and soon after, his mouth. He had huge, long spider legs arching out from his back. He was stalking along the sidewalk, leaving a trail.

Tyler ran.

Once he got home, he ran to his room, breathless. He slammed his door, sliding down the old wood.

He let out a sigh once he was on the ground.

 

Across the room, two red eyes appeared out of thin air, followed by a grin shaped out of sharp teeth. slowly, a dark body appeared, in a position like he were laying on a long couch, except that he was in mid-air. He had a thick cigar in his mouth, which he removed to puff red smoke throughout the room. Tyler scrunched up his face, trying to avoid the smoke.

Blurry lazily opened one eye and stared at him.

" **What? does the little baby not like smoke?** " He said mockingly, closing his eyes again.

Tyler growled.

"This is my room." He said it with venom, so much so that the demon opened his eye again.

" **So?** " 

"Get out." He said, standing and moving away from the door, gesturing to it.

The demon mocked a hurt expression, before sighing like leaving was the most labor-inducing task in the world.

" **You know, this really isn't your room. It's not like they want it to be, anyway.** " He said, blowing a red smoke ring at Tyler, who coughed and waved off the vapor.

"Stop." He said angrily, trying not to let himself believe what the demon was telling him.

" **Awwwww, you really think they love you? Listen, they only took you in because you were almost dead. You're not now, they don't care anymore. they'll make you leave soon, they'll kick you out. So why not leave now?** " He said, before suddenly his voice changed.

" **Collect your stuff and go, kid.** " Tyler shook his head. Blurry used Patrick's voice to  say that. 

He couldn't help but listen. He'd always listened to Patrick. He knew that it wasn't really Patrick telling him to leave, but he thought that it sounded reasonable.

Pete and Patrick had taken care of him for 4 years, it was enough.

He gathered his few possessions into a small bag, before leaving his room, leaving a note on the kitchen counter, and leaving the house.

He stood n the sidewalk in front of the old house, breathing in the cool afternoon air. He was about to start walking away when something clasped tightly around his neck, digging into his throat and cutting his breathing short. The familiar burn of black paint comes afterwards, as Blurry holds tighter, until Tyler can't stand, and all he sees is a flash of red before blacking out on the sidewalk.

~~

Patrick and Pete walked solemnly down the sidewalk, side by side. They were both tearing themselves apart for letting the paint incident happen.

They were probably 50 feet from the house when Patrick noticed something strange on the sidewalk.

"Uh, Pete? what is that?" He asked, pointing to whatever it was.

Pete narrowed his eyes for a moment.

"I, uh, i dunno 'Rick. It almost looks like a dead person." He said jokingly, causing Patrick to smack his shoulder.

"ow."

"Pete, really? i bet its just something someone dropped or something." He said as they continued walking on.

 

At 30 feet from the house, Patrick realized what it was.

 

"Pete. That's-" He whispered, before being cut off by his boyfriend yelping.

"Is that Tyler?!" He ran forward, dragging Patrick along with him.

 

Sure enough, the boy was passed out in the middle of the sidewalk.

"Patrick." Pete said softly, pointing to the teenager's next.

 

More black bruises, even darker than the ones from earlier.

 

Patrick sighed and picked Tyler up by the arms, dragging him into the house.

He carried Tyler to his room, lying him on his bed.

He looked around the room.

 

"If you're in here.

 

don't do that again. If you touch him again i'll find you."

Patrick growled, and to make his point, picked up the mirror, and shoved it through the window, making sure he heard the crash and shatter of the glass.

 

The demon swallowed hard.


	9. Non-stop

Tyler woke up in a cold sweat, still feeling hands ghosting over his neck. They were gone again once he sat up. His breathing was rugged and heavy, and his eyes darted around his darkened room, and he realized he was home. He practically fell off his bed and threw open the curtain, startled by the bright early sunlight. He remembered passing out in the afternoon, but now it was obviously earlier.

He ran to the kitchen, startling Patrick, who spilled his coffee on himself, and Pete, who practically threw his cereal everywhere.

 

"Hey kid, you feeling better?" Patrick asked, cleaning the coffee off of himself.

"Uh, y-yeah. what happened?" Tyler asked, causing an awkward glance between Pete and Patrick.

"Uh, we came home and found you passed out on the sidewalk, so we brought you back in. we, um, found a note." Pete said, looking dejectedly at the table, eyes swiping everywhere but Tyler's eyes.

"Okay. What day is it?" He asked, and Patrick looked at him in concern.

"It's only Saturday, kid." He said.

 

Brendon then appeared in the room, hair a fluffy mess, eyes tired.

"Hey guys." He mumbled, before flopping into the chair beside Pete, setting his head on the table and falling asleep again.

"Brendon. Why." Pete said, picking up the younger boy's head, sliding his cereal bowl under it and letting go of his hair, splashing milk everywhere and scaring Brendon awake again.

 

"Gg- fuck!" Brendon yelled, the cold milk running down into the inside of his shirt.

Patrick smacked his arm..

"Watch your fuckin' language young man." He scolded, taking another drink of his probably now-cold coffee.

 

Brendon grumbled and wiped his face and chest off with a towel. Tyler sat at the table, stealing the cereal that used to be Pete's, and has now had Brendon's face in it.

 

"I'm gonna eat this." He said, starting to eat it despite Patrick's motherly scolding.

Brendon woke up more, and getting an apple from the fridge, threw it at Pete, barely missing and almost hitting Patrick in the face.

 

"Brendon! for real! you're gonna kill someone!"  Patrick yelled, grabbing the apple from the floor and throwing it back.

 

Tyler watched as his little weird family interacted and sighed happily. he was so grateful to have a family. He remembered what it was like before Pete and Patrick had found him, in tiny blurry bits came memories of yelling and screaming and remembering pain. He remembered making his own friend because he wasnt allowed to have any.

Turning his ind from that, he watched as Brendon bit into the apple and spit the pieces into Patrick's coffee. The latter made a face in disgust and dumped it out in the sink.

Pete watched in amusement and continued eating his cereal, looking partially dead.

 

The food war continued, as Patrick grabbed a loaf of bread from the pantry and threw it at Brendon's head, who shrieked and fell over, running off and throwing lemons at Patrick.

Tyler grabbed a stray apple that hadnt been thrown or kicked at someone yet and started eating it, going into his closet and opening the hatch to get to the roof.

 

He sat on the roof and stared at the clouds in the early morning. It was still foggy, and the buildings where only half-visible in the mist. He sighed and threw the apple into the yard for the birds. He thought for a moment that maybe it'd grow into some apple trees and then he'd have so many apples.

 

he'd be the king of the food war.

 

he heard a clatter down below and climbed back through the roof. He entered the kitchen to see Pete hiding underneath the table, while Brendon and Patrick screamed, throwing ziploc bags full of water at each other.

 

one of them hit tyler in the chest.

 

"Ohhhh noooooo, i'm dyyyyyyying." He said, monotone, as he slowly laid down on the ground, closing his eyes and sticking his tongue out.

 

Brendon overdramatically gasped and ran over to Tyler.

"nooooooooooo, my husbando, i cannot believe, he's dead. Patrick, the war, it must end." He said softly, pretending to cry.

 

after that, Patrick and Brendon signed a truce, and Tyler magically undied. 

 

Tyler told them he wanted to grow a fruit orchard, and they all wholeheartedly supported his decision and told him ideas for fruit to grow.

He had a list on an old receipt of apples, peaches, cherries (do those grow on trees), and oranges.

 

He went back up to the roof afterwards, staring at the sky, watching as small crows and blackbirds started picking at the apple. He watched the other birds as the screeched and fought over it.

He climbed back down into the house and ran into the yard, scolding the birds to stop fighting.

"hey! hey, everybody calm down, i can get you another apple, don't hurt each other!" 

He said, watching as a group of brightly colored birds swarmed a tiny crow, the crow squawking and trying to get away.

The smaller birds didn't run off until a couple other crows flapped up and screeched at them.

Tyler sighed, deciding they'd figured it out themselves, and walked back inside, climbing up to the other side of the roof.

 

He watched the clouds roll on slowly, not wanting to go back to school on Monday. He sighed and laid down, closing his eyes.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lmao y'all have no idea what's gonna come after this
> 
>  
> 
> also this is basically a filler, that's why its so poorly written also its midnight my brain's not functioning very well sorry guys
> 
> i promise i'll do better next chapter!


	10. Broken Jaw

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there's violence in this chapter!!
> 
> tw for blood, injury, violence, and hospitals

Tyler sighed, sitting in the kitchen and waiting for Brendon to come out of his room so they could leave for school. Eventually he did, ignoring Tyler's complaints about how long he took to get ready and leaving. They started walking along the sidewalk, playfully shoving each other back and forth, laughing about some joke they made up the week before. 

They were kind of far out from the house when Brendon remembered that he had left his Geometry book on the table, running back to go get it.

Tyler danced around a bit while he waited for Brendon to get back, twirling a bit in the road, making sure no cars were coming. He continued dancing until he saw Brendon running back from the house. He grinned and waved, sticking his tongue out when Brendon waved back. There was something weird though, Brendon was waving more frantically. Tyler heard a rushing sound, and snapped his head up just in time, when something connected with his bod at an incredibly high speed, causing intense pain to explode throough his hips and stomach.

He groaned in pain, and then he heard a horrible, grotesque crunching noise, and a pain ten times worse shot through his foot. He screamed in pain and tried to get up off the ground, but his foot was still under a huge amount of weight.

His vision cleared after a moment, and he realized what had happened. He had been hit by a car, and was now pinned underneath one of its tires.

The car was powder blue.

The pastels.

He heard faint yelling that sounded like Brendon, but then it stopped. Tyler sighed and rolled his head to the side, hearing people exit the car above him.

There were four of them, two guys and two girls, and they were ll wearing light pastel colours.

Tyler sighed, his breathing was rough, he was in so much pain it made his lungs constrict. The pastels stood above him, leering as they surrounded him.

 

"Well if it ain't the precious little leader of the Punks." One of the guys said mockingly, arms crossed as he looked at Tyler in disgust.

 

"Maybe we should prove that just because we're Pastel, doesn't mean we're weak." The girl closest to Tyler said, before crouching next to him. He tried to roll his head in the other direction, but she grabbed his face.

She hooked her finger around his septum ring, snickering softly.

"Haven't you heard that these nose rings are dumb? they make you look like a bull." she said, before ripping the piercing straight from his nose.

Tyler screamed and writhed, still unable to move, which sent sharp bolts of pain up through his leg.

They all laughed, and one of the others grabbed his eyebrow bar, making some snarky comment he couldn't hear before tearing that piercing out.

Tyler's breathing was so loud in his own ears that he couldn't hear them speaking to him.

He felt one of them grab his smaller gauge, while another grabbed his lipring, both of them ripping them out at once. 

For once, Tyler wasn't the only one who screamed.

He heard a yell just outside of his field of vision, before he saw the tiny, compact, full-of-rage body of Patrick Vaughn Stump collide with one of the Pastels, who started to scream as he swung his stump-arm around. He had his hook on, Tyler noticed. Not only that, but his  _barbed_ hook. Tyler's vision kept fading in and out from darkness. He couldn't tell what was going on anymore, only able to hear screams, and only able to feel something warm and thick covering his face.

He saw Brendon above him, and heard him speaking, but it was like it was far away, and like his head was underwater.

Tyler tried to reach for Brendon, but it felt like he was far away from his own body.

 

He blacked out.

 

~~~~~

Josh stood in the commons, trying to figure out what the group of Pastels was telling him. They were all ragged looking, with huge scratches and cuts on their arms, and one looked like he might need stitches on his shoulder.

"Okay, okay, one more time. what happened?" He said, and one of the girls piped up.

 

"We were walking to school and one of the groups of Punks started to harass us, y'know? they kinda shoved us a bit, and then it escalated when we shoved back, and that one with the- with the hook and the one with the red hair, they messed us up the most." She said, hoping Josh wouldn't go to check out the Punks, because she knew he would find out from them that it was the Pastels who hurt the Punks.

Josh seethed for a moment, before writing a note to Gerard that he was going to the hospital to check up on the Punks.

There was something about the girl Pastel's story that made Josh think that it might not be true, but a good leader trusts their people. He drove to the hospital, getting angrier and angrier as he got closer to the hospital, knuckles white from holding the wheel so tightly.

Once he arrived, he asked where the Punk was, and the woman behind the counter gave him a sad look, before telling him the room number. 

He ran into the elevator, punching the button so hard, he hurt his finger.

He made his way down the hallway, finding the room and bursting through the door, immediately regretting it.

 

It was the boy from lunch.

 

He looked exhausted, his eyes looked hollow. He had stitches in multiple spots across his face, like his lip, eyebrow, and nose. Once Josh entered, the boy jumped and sat up, eyes watching every movement the Pastel made.

 

"Why are you here?" He asked cautiously, voice so rough it made Josh wince.

"Why are  _you_   ~~~~here?" Josh asked, knowing it sounded childish and stupid.

"Couple of your Pastels hit me with their car. Ripped the piercings directly out of my face." He spat, and Josh was almost offended.

"Are you really making up a story  _that_ ridiculous." Josh said, annoyed that the kid would even try that hard.

Apparently that was the wrong thing to say. The boy's eyes filled with rage, and Josh swore they flickered red for a second.

" _Making up a story?_ " he asked venomously, leaning forward.

Josh swallowed, stepping back and nodding ever so slightly.

"So you come into this hospital, waste  _all_ your time this morning coming here to see me, then accuse me of lying, even though i'm in  _worse condition than the Pastels who lied to you_." His voice was dangerously and terrifyingly calm.

Josh suddenly realized how much more sense that made than what he was thinking.

"What did they do to you?" He asked softly, mouth feeling dry suddenly.

The boy's anger seemed to dissolve into sadness. He sighed quietly and moved the blanket off of his legs.

Josh gasped.

Where the boy's left foot should've been was a thickly bandaged stump. 

"Brendon was the only thing keeping Patrick from doing worse to them. He was the only thing that kept them from doing worse to me. You know i could've died?" He said angrily, before sighing and laying back in the bed, closing his eyes.

Josh decided this meant he wanted to be left alone.

He left the room, passing the Punk with the hook, Patrick, and the taller one, Brendon.

They stared at him as walked back downstairs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im so sorry


	11. The Room Where it Happens

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yell at me for the last chapter on my tumblr; @uppercasebread

Brendon entered Tyler's room and exhaled softly, heart clenching at the sight.

 

"Tyler, i-" He started, before getting choked up, tears starting to sting his eyes. He took a deep breath before starting again. 

"-I'm so sorry" He said, tears finally falling, face heating up slowly.

Tyler sighed in response.

"Brendon, it's not your fault that the Pastels attacked me. It's not your fault, okay?" He said softly, and Brendon nodded, though he didn't believe what his brother was telling him.

"But if i'd just- if i'd just decided not to get my book, you wouldn't have been hurt, and maybe, and maybe then you'd still have your foot." Brendon hiccuped, and Tyler realized just how much Brendon blamed himself.

"Brendon, no, it really isn't your fault. They probably would've done something anyways, and they might've gotten you too." He said, wrapping his arms loosely around his brother.

 

Tyler let Brendon cry for a while, before patting his back gently.

"Hey B, you should probably go to school. As traumatizing as this might be, you don't wanna have to make up a ton of homework." He laughed softly, sadly, before pushing Brendon gently towards the door.

Brendon nodded, and left, still a mess.

Patrick was waiting for him there, a soft smile playing on his lips.

"It's okay Brendon. He's okay." Patrick spoke gently, rubbing Brendon's back.

Brendon nodded, and took a shaky breath before walking to the elevator.

He wiped the tears from his eyes, calming his breathing, as they made their way down the sidewalk.

"Hey, you're the temporary leader!" Patrick said, trying to cheer the younger boy up.

Brendon chuckled, before standing in front of everyone and breaking the news.

The room exploded in angry shouts and 'boo's, and Brendon calmed them down. He explained what happened, and he saw the anger on every one of the Punks' faces get stronger and stronger as they listened. Patrick grabbed Brendon's hand.

"So Brendon will be your new leader until Tyler gets back, we promise he's okay though." He said, and every Punk nodded.

The bell rang, and they all scattered.

~~~

Josh sat in his Geometry II class, head in his hands. 

He couldn't believe what was happening.

Here he was, trying to be a good leader, and the people he's trying to lead almost killed someone for being different. He was about to cry, eyes and nose starting to sting. He didn't know what to do, he couldn't give the kid his foot back. He could try to get to know him, though. He decided to try to talk to the kid after school, to make up for what he did.

A soft voice suddenly spoke in his ear, startling him.

"Are you alright, Josh?"

He jumped and looked up, seeing a soft-looking boy standing there.

Josh blinked.

He didn't recognize them.

"W-who are you?" He asked, and the boy smiled, before shaking his head.

The bell rang, and the boy disappeared into the crowd.

Josh shook his head.

~~

The final bell finally rang, and Josh took off, grabbing his stuff  and leaving the building.

He waved down Gerard, asking if he could take him to the hospital, he had to talk to someone.

"You know you could walk there, right?" Gerard asked, and Josh nodded.

"Yeah, but its more fun to pretend we're in a movie." Josh shrugged, and Gerard laughed slightly.

They rode in mostly silence, and once they arrived, Josh jumped out of the car and ran into the building.

He went to the elevator and tried his hardest to remember the room number.

He opened the door, and the boy in the bed narrowed his eyes.

"Are you back to blame me for more things? Gonna complain that all your plants died because i exist or something?" He spat, and Josh looked down.

"No, I kinda came to see, um, if you wanted to talk? actually never mind you probably just wanna rest, i'll leave." Josh mumbled, turning on his heel to leave.

"Wait! uh, actually it'd be nice to talk to someone." The boy said softly.

Josh grinned, and asked the first cliche question:

"So, what was your childhood like?"


	12. Aaaaaaaa

Guys I'm so so sorry I haven't been updating; I've been super busy with after school play practice and my curfew is at 9 and I'm really sorry! I'll update as soon as I can I promise

Also; I wanted to thank you guys for reacting so well to this fic! There's so many nice comments and all the hits, you guys are so so awesome.

Anyways, thank you for reading this and sorry if I tricked you into thinking this was a chapter


	13. The Story of Tonight

Tyler took a deep, shaky breath. he wasn't ready to talk about everything, at least before pete and patrick found him.

 

"Well.."

~~~~~~~

_Two young boys sit huddled together in an alley, shivering. one is wrapped in a blanket, a cold sweat forming on his forehead. The other is tucked in a ball next to him, pressed into his side comfortably. He stared at the outside of the alley, watching all of the people who had places to  be, homes to get to._

_The smaller of the two sighs, gently petting the hair of his sick friend._

_As he's humming a song under his breath, to try to ease his nerves, two figures slowly start to enter the alley. He tenses, eyes narrowing as he moves closer to his friend.  The figures move slowly and cautiously closer, one crouching._

_The smaller boy quickly reaches for his switchblade, hidden under a broken vase, a couple feet away. He brings it close to his chest, drawing it out and narrowing his eyes even further at the strangers._

_"Hey now, we're not gonna hurt you." The crouching one says. His voice is gentle, and he seems short, though still taller than the other figure, who's still standing._

_"W-What do you want from us? we've got nothin' really." The smaller boy says, voice cracking from underuse._

_The figures seem to wince at his speaking, and the second one crouches._

_"We just wanted to see if you guys could come with us, we don't really want you out here with winter just around the corner, okay?" the second one says._

_The smaller boy was offended, he was taking_ great _care of himself and brendon, they didn't have to go anywhere._

_"Aw, come on. I promise, we're not gonna hurt you, we just want to keep you guys from getting hurt, especially because it seems like you dont have a lot to keep you warm." Tyler frowned, he knew they were right._

_He sighed and stood, putting away the switchblade. He made sure to look at Brendon, asleep on the ground under the same old blanket. Tyler stood directly next to him, to signify he wasnt leaving without his 'brother'._

_The taller figure seemed to catch on right away, carefully moving over and picking Brendon up bridal-style, staggering for a moment from the strange positioning of his back, then finally standing straight, looking concerned about how light Brendon was. The shorter one held out his hand for Tyler, who took it gingerly. They led him out of the alleyway, walking a couple blocks. They eventually reached a run-down house, wedged between two small shops._

_"Here we are! sorry it's not much, but hey, it's something!" the kid holding Tyler's hand chirped, grinning at him.  
_

 

_Tyler decided he liked it._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> omg im so sos sososo sorry that  
> 1 i havent been udating- wwe fund out i have type 1 diabetes and its been an ordeal
> 
> and
> 
> 2 this chapter probably isnt very good  
> i have writers block im so so sorry


	14. The Story of Tonight (Reprise)

Josh breathed out softly.

"Guess it's my turn?" He said, a smile ghosting across his features.

~

_A young boy walks along the sidewalk, in the middle of the night, clutching his nose. It's probably broken. The boy is maybe eleven, and he stumbles along, trying to ignore the tears dripping down his face. He tries to simultaneously remember and forget what chain of events led to this._

_Angry shouts, slurs._

_pain._

_something thick and warm running down his face._

_The rush to grab his things and leave._

_And all because he liked to wear 'feminine' clothes._

_He sighed, continuing to stagger along, about to pass out from exhaustion. He's probably at least two miles out from his house now. Good. He slumps on the sidewalk, curled up under a tree, falling asleep quickly._

 

_He's woken by a bright light shining on his face. He groans, cracking his eyes open, noticing that the light was coming from an old beater pickup truck, still running. He sits up sharply as someone climbs out, and runs over to him._

_"H-Hey kid, you alright? looks like you got quite a number done on ya, huh?" He asked._

_Josh nodded timidly, as the older kid held out his hand. Josh took it gingerly. He let the older kid lead him to the truck, where another boy about Josh's age was asleep. He carefully climbed in, lying down and facing the door, acknowledging the older kid placing a blanket over him with a tiny hum, eyes closing slowly._

_He slept fitfully, waking up occasionally to someone singing softly, he fell asleep fastest to that, the voice was gentle. The other times there was another, unidentified voice. Josh assumed this was the voice of the other sleeping boy. Sometimes he awoke to nobody else in the car, seemingly at a gas station._

_He woke fully in the morning, to sunlight streaming through the windows of the truck. He sat up, yawning._

_"I see you're awake, kid!" The older one chirped, a crooked grin sliding easily onto his features._

_Josh nodded, and realized that they had stopped._

_"Well, good thing, 'cause we're home!" He yelled, and Josh noticed the large, dark apartment building just in front of them. The older boy climbed from the truck, stretching and then gathering a few things from the cab before heading into the building, a hurried and rather mussed-up Josh following behind._


	15. Burn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SORRY IVE BEEN GONE SO LONG I LOV U ALL

The boy in the bed whistled lowly.  
"Hey, guess we've both got a messed up story" he said quietly, huffing a small laugh.   
Josh grinned lopsidedly.  
"Yeah, you're right. we've got more in common than i thought." That was a slightly cliche line, and Josh realized that that was the only thing they had in common right now, but he didn't mention it. He was about to say something else when his phone vibrated. He smiled apologetically and fished it out of his pocket.

He had a message from Gerard, asking where he was and apologizing if he interrupted some 'sweet makeout time'. Josh snorted, and glanced back at the boy.

"Uh, sorry, i should probably get going, my- uh- brother is waiting for me." He said, earning a nod and a tired 'okay' in response.  
He turned and left, making sure to turn out the light as per request. He jogged downstairs and out to the parking lot, where Gerard was waiting in his old pickup, meeting Josh with a wide, sideways grin.  
"How was it?" He asked, brushing some of his hair behind his ear. If Josh squinted, he could see a bit of the orange.   
"It was good i guess, nothing really exciting." He shrugged, still trying to really think about what had happened. He had told his backstory to some kid he barely knew. But then, of course, the kid had told Josh his story first.  
He contemplated what had led the boy to tell him his backstory, wondering if the Punk had trusted him. But that couldn't be it, he was the leader of the group who had landed him in the hospital in the first place. Josh continued to think about it as he entered the apartment, stopping in stunned silence.

There was a short punk sitting at the dining room table, legs crossed in the chair. He was intently staring at his phone, and Josh took the time to take in his appearance. He had shorter, white hair on either side of his head, while down the middle was a long piece, but instead of white, it was completely jet black. He had tattoo sleeves, and some that crept up his neck. His eyes were dark and he had two piercings decorating his face.

Gerard arrived a moment later, gently pushing past Josh, into the room.  
"By the way, that's Frank. He's cool." Gerard said, and Frank looked up, waving slightly with a small, distracted 'hey', before returning to his phone. Gerard slid next to him, peeking over his shoulder to see what he was doing.  
Josh nodded, and went to put his bag in his room, passing Mikey's. He poked his head in. Mikey was sitting on his bed, reading some book or another.  
"Hey Mikes!" He said, earning a mumbled 'hey' in response.   
He frowned, wondering if it was just a bad day, before leaving and loping back to his room, chucking his bookbag onto the bed. He pulled out his homework, finishing it as quickly as possible before slipping back out into the kitchen, where Gerard and Frank were giggling quietly about something on his phone.  
"Oh! hey kid, what's up?" Gerard chirped at Josh, who just sighed in response.  
"Is Mikey acting weird to you?" He asked, earning a gentle nod.  
"He's kinda distant. He'll be okay tomorrow, and if he isn't, i'll talk to him." Gerard said softly, Josh nodding.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
He wasn't okay the next day. He was worse. Josh tried to talk to him, but he only got angry glares or nothing in response. Josh kept pushing, ttrying all day to get Mikey to sy something, do something other than just glare.

He didn't.


	16. UPDATE!!!!!!

OH MY GOD I'M SO SORRY I'VE BEEN GONE SO LONG I GOT SUPER BUSY AND I PROMISE A NEW CHAPTER WILL BE COMING SOON


	17. i won't let you down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TW for blood mention and death mention ooooooooo

Josh sighed, Mikey was seemingly drifting further and further from him, and no matter what he did, his brother spoke stiffly and cut conversations short. 

Meanwhile, he'd been visiting Tyler more and more, getting closer and closer to the boy, until they were essentially attached at the hip. They spent much of their time together, even after Tyler had been discharged from the hospital. Josh learned a lot about the Punk boy, including things about his demon, the one who appeared in hallucinations.

Blurryface.

Josh learned why the black paint had been a trigger, causing a horrible, ice-cold knot of dread to form in his stomach.

After that uncomfortable conversation,  they had bonded even tighter somehow.

though things at the Way-Dun household were not so great.

~~~~~~~~

Josh climbed down the stairs, entering the kitchen quietly. He made himself breakfast and for either Gerard or Mikey to come join him. Gerard  came down first, rubbing sleep out of his eyes and yawning. Mikey came next, ignoring Josh, creating a cold atmosphere in the room. 

Josh silently packed his things into his bag to go hang out with Tyler, zipping it closed and quietly creeping out of the house, wincing at the slam of the old screen door. he padded silently down the sidewalk, rolling events through his mind to see if could figure out what was bothering Mikey so much. He had come to the conclusion that it was probably because  Gerard let Josh go out and leave the house,while Mikey wasn't allowed to leave as often, when he heard shouts and yelling. he ran towards the noise,forgetting momentarily about his problem.

Upon reaching the site of the commotion, Josh stopped, blood going cold.

There was group of Punks and Pastels amassing on the school's courtyard, a thin line of empty space between cliques as they faced each other, snarling, but refraining to move into action, like waiting for a silent command. in middle stood Brendon, Patrick, Pete, and Tyler. They had their arms spread to the sides, creating a kind of boundary or wall between the two.

They were in a vaguely almond-shaped crescent, standing around a small kid, who's body lay flat on ground, their clothes an indeterminate color.

 

they were lying in a pool of their own blood.

 

Josh quickly ran down the hill he'd been standing on, galloping down to the tiny group in the center of what seemed to be a war. He joined in the almond-shape silently,the rest immediately accepting him in without question.

And so, Josh saw who was on the ground.

He didn't recognize the kid, but he had long,dark hair,which was now splayed around his face,frozen in a grotesque shape of horror. His eyes were open, but they were glazed over and foggy, looking without seeing.

Josh shuddered.

suddenly, someone arrived on the hill, and the whole courtyard below caught their breath. this was who they were waiting for. This was who would give them a command and launch them all into a war.

 

It was Mikey

* * *


	18. Update

Hey,,,, ,, so,,, ,

 

I haven't written for this in forever and I feel terrible BUT

1; I lost my computers, I get them back on Sunday, so hopefully after that I'll be able to update

2; school is almost over!! I SUPER hope after that that I'll be able to update :V

 

I'm suuuuuuuuuuuuuuper sorry for how terrible I am at updating this, I feel terrible :((((((((


	19. Who Are You, Really?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> guess whos back back back
> 
>  
> 
> sorry lmao

All eyes in the courtyard turned to the younger Way sibling, waiting for some kind of sign. Then, he moved. It was so subtle that Tyler wasn't even sure it had happened, but then the kids in the courtyard separated, going their separate ways and sending sharp glares to their opposite sides. The boy they had been guarding was eventually carefully carried off by his sobbing boyfriend, and so the small group in the center broke apart.

Tyler slipped over to Josh, and they both picked up conversation where they had left it off the day before, but there was a heavy weight still hanging over them, it was obvious that they were dancing around a question that everyone wanted to ask:

What was supposed to happen just then?

Of course, it may have been just what it seemed, a scuffle that ended in a gunshot, and a casualty. But, the way the sides stayed still, stayed separate, was unnatural. There were moments where one teen would be shoved past the edge of their group, only to rush back in. There was a stiff silence once Mikey arrived, the way every eye was focused on him was unnerving, uncomfortable.

 

Something was supposed to have happened.

 

Tyler thought about it as hard as he could, wondering what was planned. He thought maybe a war was supposed to have broken out, or maybe some kind of battle. A challenge both sides had to live up to, they  _had_ to prove themselves,  _had_ to show that they were enough, that they could be useful to their team, to their 'side'. Their side of what?

He thought until his head hurt, until the lines of all of the most recent suspicious activity seemed to cross and meld together, tangled in a knot. None of it made sense, anyway. Why were they trying so hard to prove they could be loyal to their side, when their side now wouldn't matter in the future? He decided it was the feeling of attention and approval that most of them craved from someone, anyone, would fuel their hatred for each other.

That hatred was stupid, he thought, because who cares in college whether you were a Punk or a Pastel? would the others they meet in the future just laugh at the concept, and if they did, would he laugh with them? would he eventually realize how completely  _stupid_ this all was? maybe he was realizing it now. It was only noon, and already he'd rethought his entire life and existence.

"Hey, you okay?" Josh asked, waving a hand in front of Tyler's face, startling him.

"Oh! uh, yeah, just thinking about today, and how weird all of that was. Do you know what it was?" He asked, though he didn't expect an answer, he just wanted to keep himself from slipping back into that thought process again.

"No, it was really strange. Though Mikey's been acting weird for a while now, like he hates me or somethin'. It got worse once G started dating that one Punk dude, now he just stays in his room all day or goes out real late at night. No clue where he's going though." Josh shrugged, and Tyler added another string of suspicious activity to his quickly growing Mental Suspicious Activity Board. 

It was a mess of yellow strings right now, but that one was a single red one. There was something extra suspicious about that. 

"Shouldn't you be keeping an eye on him or something? that sounds kinda... weird" Tyler asked, picking up a small, rust-colored rock.

"Yeah, but he's sneaky, like a cat. He walks around really quietly and somehow is able to keep that old door from creaking. Maybe he leaves through the window." Josh mused, and Tyler frowned.

"I don't know, there's something that weirds me out about that." Tyler shrugged and rolled the rock down the path they were walking along, watching it roll and bounce away until he couldn't see it anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HEYHEY HELLOOOOOO
> 
>  
> 
> do u like hamilton???? then u should read the new fic im about to start 
> 
>  
> 
> also im so sorry for disappearing for like a month

**Author's Note:**

> wow
> 
> what a bad ending
> 
>  
> 
> lmao yea this is probably the worst fic


End file.
